The management of complicated networks such as telecommunications networks or sophisticated computer networks is tremendously expensive. A substantial portion of this cost arises from incomplete, incorrect or ambiguous knowledge about a network. For example, a telecommunications network operator may not have an accurate record of how network switches are configured, leading to failed attempts to fix problems or provision new services. This lack of knowledge can in some instances be remedied by polling the networking equipment to determine its actual settings.
However, a more fundamental ambiguity arises at the physical level of network cable management. Network cables may be added, removed or moved by support personnel for a variety of reasons, often to solve urgent problems. However, it is very difficult to maintain an accurate record of exactly which cable is connected to which port of a given piece of equipment (e.g., a patch panel of a telecommunications switch), since the cables may so easily be connected, disconnected, and reconnected.
Typically, network cable locations and connections are tracked manually, by, for example, putting printed tags on each cable, storing the tag-to-cable mappings in a database, and then attempting to manually keep the database up to date. In addition, physical inventories of network offices, in which the cables are identified, tagged and mapped, are themselves typically performed manually. In a large telecommunications or computer network system, it is an extremely expensive proposition to keep track of every cable, where it is, where it runs, and which port on a given piece of equipment it is plugged into. As a result, equipment inventory databases are notoriously inaccurate, and the negative results include, inter alia, loss of network capacity, increased service times and a much greater chance of disruptive service errors. Thus, it would be highly advantageous if there were an automated mechanism able to identify the connections between cables and equipment ports of a given piece of equipment such as, for example, a patch panel of a telecommunications switch.